The web page of University Grants Commission (UGC) is among various other website links that have been blocked on internet on the basis of a Gwalior court order after a business partner of Arindam Chaudhuri-led IIPM complained about “defamatory material” about the institute published on them.

The Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DEITY) blocked 78 web pages including that of UGC following the court order.

The list of web pages blocked also included news items on websites of leading media houses on the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM).

“We will be talking to our advocates on Monday about this development before taking any action,” said UGC chairman Ved Prakash in an apparent indication of moving to a higher court to challenge the ban on the web-page link carrying the notice.

UGC in its public notice cautioning the students had said it does not recognise (IIPM) and that it is not entitled to award degrees.

Chaudhuri said if something has happened is legal then no question should be raised to him.

“Go and ask why in the first place they had shamefully put defamatory content? If the law says defamatory URLs should be banned, and that is how it is world over, everyone should rejoice because tomorrow they could be at the receiving end of a malicious campaign and they might want justice,” he said.

Complying with the Gwalior court order, Ministry of Communications and IT issued the order to internet service providers to comply with the order by blocking web pages as directed by the court.

“As per routine process, we only complied with court order and did not have any role in making the list of urls (web pages) to be blocked,” Director General Indian CERT (under DEITY) Gulshan Rai said.